


strikes, eases, dies, leaves a temporary silence.

by xpatxperience



Series: The Abolitionists [1]
Category: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain, Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Drowning, M/M, abolitionists
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-13 03:37:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13561962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xpatxperience/pseuds/xpatxperience
Summary: Abolitionist[ab-uh-lish-uh-nist]noun1.(especially prior to the Civil War) a person who advocated or supported the abolition of slavery in the U.S.2.As in, 1860 Missouri was not a good time to be an abolitionist. Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer both knew this, but went about anyway.





	strikes, eases, dies, leaves a temporary silence.

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of a larger series centered around the Civil War and Abolitionism. Happy Black History Month as well.

    The ropes burned into his skin, rubbing the flesh there raw as he was shoved and pushed, pushed and shoved, through the crowd of masses screaming and yelling, yelling and screaming, all demanding the same thing. In other situations, he would look upon the unification of such a deeply divided town as this to be an act of God, but considering the topic matter, he just couldn’t bring himself to care about anything other than the impending meeting he had with whatever created this universe. 

 

    “Don’t waste a bullet on them!” David Copper shouts to no one in particular.

 

    “What have we done to deserve such a curse?”  Anne Templeton asks, a question that will never be answered.

 

    “Don’t look at them sweetie! They might steal your soul!” Susan Vega whispers to her child.

 

    “I live to see the day I look upon the devil! As I live and breathe!” Manneth Kings says, who will breathe for not much longer.

 

    Thomas Sawyer says nothing, though not due to his lack of wanting too. It is more or less due to the strip of cloth that has been tied around his mouth, the one that digs into his cheeks, the one that flattens his tongue rendering him unable to speak, the one that sits between his teeth and makes him unable to call out -- to say  _ I’m sorry. _

 

    Sorry for what exactly? If those words were able to remove themselves from the steel trap of his bound mouth they would bring confusion to the spectators who had, hours earlier heard him let out a rather profane sentence in the holy temple of God. That alone would bring out a rather cruel and unusual punishment, therefore adjoining it with what had already been done (and what had been done that  _ NOBODY  _ can know about) is what brought him to being shoved through this crowd of hostiles.

 

     No. The apology wasn’t meant for anyone who was calling for his removal from this wild thing we call life. It was for the man in front of him who probably couldn’t even hear it over the screams and chants, chants and screams, that were shredding the vocal chords of all participating. However, Tom has always been taught that it is the thought that counts in such matters. And right now, in their particular situation, thoughts are as good as it is going to get. 

 

   The river approaches them slowly. It crawls up on them unwillingly and seems to be dragging its feet through the mud and reeds that surround it, acting like a defiant child saying,  _ but I don’t wanna.  _ But like all children, it will eventually be condition to do what others want it to do. What society expects it to do. What God intended it to do. But perhaps Tom misthinks. For after all, if him and the man in front of him had found their care of society’s thoughts to overpower their own personally developed ideology they might have had a chance to see twenty four years old. 

 

   As they reach the bank of the river, the mass of people stop suddenly. As if they are existing as one cancerous cell, a connected hive mind that knows the script for sending people off into the next live via asphyxiation. Maybe these occurrences are more common than he previously thought, or maybe he just wasn't paying that close of attention. Well, he obviously wasn’t paying close attention. If he was, the innkeeper, whose name was Rachel, wouldn’t have happened upon what saw in the woods that June morning, the sun bathing light for any to see; his participation in the liberation of those who seemed to be considered property. 

 

    By the time the authorities made it to the spot, the people, yes people, were now far, far away, gaining ground to freedom, coming closer than they had ever been before. Therefore, all Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn could do was raise their hands and accept that they would help no more people find freedom. There were sixteen people fleeing away from captivity that day and Tom thought sixteen lives for two was a pretty good trade, all things considered. 

 

   Now, he is thrown down beside Huck in the shallows to the water. His legs are encased with the waters of the Mississippi. The same water he has relied on so many times in his life has finally run out of life to give and is calling in its favours. He glaces a look to his left and thanks the Something of this universe that he is able to die alongside his friend, just as they did all things in life. It is then that the pastor takes to the soap box and begins the cruel ceremony.

 

    “We are gathered here today to see to the expulsion of corruption and evil from our society!” The words are spat down at those with their legs sinking into the river bank. “Sin is a cruel mistress who wraps her tentacles around any of those not strong enough to find solace in all that is holy, in all that is right, in all that is under God’s protection!” Tom can feel the vibrations from the anger boiling off the growth of people behind him. “Today we honor God’s duty and expel from our sight that which the devil has touched!” Such bloodlust and cravings for destruction shake the ground as they are promised the good life in exchange for the sacrifice of those who, in theory, need the most help. 

 

     Tom turns his head only slightly, as in their last moments together alone they had promised it would be easier to say their goodbyes then and speak no more, to look upon all he loved at the precipice of its demise. Huck’s eyes were straight forward, holding so much anger inside of them, that if looks alone could kill, they would be the only ones walking out of this alive. His hands were bound as well, though the white rope now stained a despicable rust color, a dye job that would surely lead to infection Tom thought. He thought again about how there would be no worry of infection, because there would soon be nothing to infect. 

 

     He looks down then to his own bound hands and wishes he could reach out and touch, touch and reach out, just once more, to provide any sort of comfort. But to be granted the wish of ‘once more’ is such a slippery slope of, one more, one more, one more. They have both fallen down that tunnel twice in life, you think they would learn the first time, but logical thinking never did come naturally to them. After all, if they could hide the undefinable manifestation that was the excruciating amount of love they felt for eachother, then why not several human beings?  

 

     Tom Sawyer didn’t mean to go into the business of unselling people, but when the man who you’ve silently promised your life to comes home with a family who looks very scared, very tired, very hungry, and very  _ black _ what more can a person do then accept that this is the way things are now? 

 

    The crowd must have decided at that moment that it was time to get this show on the metaphorical road, because at that moment Tom and Huck are both hauled up from where they had been shoved down and thrown, into the wood boats that have sat patiently while fire and brimstone were spat upon the two men. The wood presses hard into Tom’s back and his head smacks against the side and for a second he loses all sense of where he is.

 

   When he comes to, the first thing Tom Sawyer notices is that the sun is very bright. He wishes suddenly that it would rain, or cloud, or show any signs that God himself disapproved of what was taking place. Even though his holiness could do anything to stop the events, nothing that is short of a minor miracle, it would bring Tom more comfort if he knew The Creator was at least ticked off. Yet the sky remained blue, the sun still shown, and Tom Sawyer was still going to be thrown into the river to die. The second thing he noticed was that someone was binding his feet with the same rope used to hinder his hands useless. The third thing he noticed, was that Huck was no longer by his side. 

 

   He stat bolt upright then, suddenly too aware of where he was. All of the colours were too noticeable, it was as if he could see new ones the current spectrum did not allow. His head felt lighter than normal as his lungs seemed to have forgotten how to function as every part of his body was consumed by the absolute encompassing terror of the moment.

 

    “He’s awake!” One of the two other people in his boat shouted. “Glad you’ve come too. Gives you a chance to repent before… well, you know.” The man says to Tom. The words don’t stick in Tom’s brain as his attention becomes fixed on the boat behind the man, no more than ten feet away. More specifically, on the commotion that is taking place. He throws himself to the bow of the boat and tries to make sense of it all. Suddenly, there was a shout and a splash, and all became quiet. 

 

   Then, many things occur at the same time. In the same instant, the second boat lets out a cry of victory, Tom slams his foot into the jaw of the man binding his feet, the binding then falls from its position, and Thomas Sawyer, after taking his last breath of air, throws himself overboard capsizing the entire boat in the process. The water was cold, considering the summer month, and if there was any lag in Tom’s functioning it was washed away then. His eyes are open and the water singes them, creating the feeling of smoke from a fire. Yet he still swims on trying to find him among the river water.

 

   He uses his newly unbound feet to kick along in what he hopes and prays, for the first time in a long while, is the right direction. His mouth is wired shut, trying to stop the natural instinct that is rising up in him to breathe in, but the longer he goes the larger it swells up in him and the fear of dying now starts overriding absolutely everything. Then he sees a mass of black against the backdrop of gray-blue and frantically swims towards it, everything in his body protesting he stop. But he can’t stop, not until he knows.

 

The sun knew. The water knew. All the towns people knew. And now Tom knows, too late.

 

    Hands still bound, he reaches out now to touch. He can’t tell if the body is cold because the water is cold, everything is cold, the world is cold and unfair. The brown eyes have become white as the filament signifies that Huck is gone from this world, for real this time. There is nothing fake in the bloated and soon to be decomposing corpse that once held everything Tom cared about. Black begins to crowd at the edges of Tom’s vision creeping in on him, telling him he needs to make a choice. He glances up at the sun, still shining away, a pathway out of the river to where he can breathe again. Then he glances at Huck, suspended in the same water that he had loved all his life. The same water he had lived on. The same water that had birthed into him a sense of purpose and belonging, and knew now those two things were stripped away, never to be returned. 

 

   For the first time in his now short period of time on this Earth, Tom Sawyer decides to do nothing. Or maybe doing nothing is something in this instance. He doesn’t have much time to think about the greater philosophical thoughts of execution turned suicide because soon his vision is filling with fuzz and his lungs have reached an unignorable scream, attention must be paid. So, Tom Sawyer let’s go and feels the water rush into his lungs. 

 

Now, the sun knows. The water knows. All the towns people know. Tom knows. And now you know, too late.

**Author's Note:**

> to any current high school seniors please let me know if you hate college applications as much as i do


End file.
